AG Bondi Defends Decision Not To Join South Carolina Opioid Lawsuit

This week South Carolina decided to sue the maker OxyContin for deceptive marketing.

Florida isn’t joining the suit anytime soon, but Attorney General Pam Bondi says she’s pursuing the issue as part of a bipartisan executive working group.

“As the attorney general of the state of Florida," Bondi says, "being on this small working group, I can obtain documents much faster than anyone else will be able to who’s already sued.”

The group’s investigation could support legal action in the future. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, South Carolina saw 11.4 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 in 2015 adjusted for age. In Florida the rate is slightly lower—at 9.4.

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For the third year in a row, the proposed Jacksonville city budget contains no money for updating or expanding the medical examiner’s office —that’s despite an increased workload and overcrowding from drug-overdose deaths.

In Prince George's County, Md., every first responder carries naloxone, the drug that can reverse an opioid overdose.

"We carry it in our first-in bags," says Bryan Spies, the county's battalion chief in charge of emergency services. "So whenever we arrive at a patient's side, it's in the bag, along with things like glucose, aspirin and oxygen."

Update 3:35 pm August 10: Two days after making a few general remarks about the opioid crisis, President Trump on Thursday called it "a national emergency" and said his administration would be drawing up papers to make it official.

"We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

While Gov. Rick Scott isn't committing to using courts in the battle against Florida's opioid crisis, a state senator from Miami and a Palm Beach community want to use the legal system to address the crisis.